The Energon Pub

Thinking back to my childhood the other day I was remembering when I first started creating my own personal universe based on the transformers I had at the time. In my own universe I didn't have either optimus prime or megatron and I remember that the leader of the Autobot forces was Gripper (aka Blacker) and that my decepticon forces were led by both Motormaster and Snare. So I was wondering what other transformers people have chosen to be the faction leaders in the absence of the official choice of megs & ops?

As a kid I never had a huge collection of TFs (but the neighbour's kid did ) but among the ones I had, Ultra Magnus was the Autobot leader (though somewhat hesitantly). I lost that toy somewhere in the mists of time, but I made sure to buy the TRU reissue years ago. I can't remember who was my Decepticon chief though...

I used jazz or prowl when optimus was injured and starscream for the decepticons.

I had a rather limited collection as a kid, mainly late G1 'european' release toys, pink light piping, wow! I had Boss lead the Autobots, until I got G2 Optimus much later.
I had a strange dark green not-transformer thing (just dug it out, made by MC TOY in Macau) which has a tonne of die cast, turns into a laser gun, tank, camera and robot, since it turned into a gun and tank I made it Megatron. When I got G2 Starscream, I had Starscream kill Megatron and take charge.

I never got a Megatron figure until I got the Masterpiece one. In my opinion, they still have not made an ideal Megatron. Henkei Megatron is the best I have, and it could have been much better.

Optimus and Megatron were lost in battle (covered by a mountain).

Prowl Took over for the Autobots.
Shockwave led the Decepticons.

Eventually Prime returned but Megatron did not so the Con's leadership rotated to whomever was stronger at the time.

Con leaders
Shockwave
defeated by Onslaught

Onslaught led for the longest but was defeated by Mindwipe.

Mindwipe was defeated by Hungurr (with the help of the Terrorcons).

Not long after Shockwave once again took over only to be soundly defeated by Scorponok.
Galvatron acted as Scorponok's advisor.

About this time I was really old and stopped playing with them like I used to.

Although now I do sometimes have battles with my Classics (it sometimes helps relieve stress believe it or not).

Optimus is the current Autobot commander
Grimlock (Masterpiece) is Lt. Commander
Ultra Magnus is commander of the ground forces
Silverbolt is commander of the air force

Megatron leads the cons
Onslaught is the second leader
Nemesis Prime is the third

When I was a kid, the leader of my good buy group was g1 Ultra Magnus and my protagonist was Cloudburst's inner robot. The bad guy was Godzilla.

These days, when taking story photos for the local Transformers website I also frequent (the site has a board-wide storyline which any member can join in if they have a camera), the leaders of what could be considered the good guys are a trio comprising of ROTF Power up Optimus Prime, Classics Silverstreak and TFTM Ironhide. The protagonist of the side stories I make for the site is Classics Ultra Magnus, who leads a small splinter cell that broke off from the main group when they discovered the corruption within the leadership.

The leader of the antagonistic group is currently represented by Beast Wars Neo Stampy, while his generals are portrayed by Beast Wars Neo Magmatron, Car Robots Gigatron, Energon Scorponok, Armada Starscream and Energon Mirage.

I always had a G2 Optimus Prime as an Autobot leader... but then there was a time when he was the only bot in my Autobot collection, fighting a bunch of cyberjet Decepticons. I always had them led by some faceless evil force of unknown nature or origin. Then when I got into Beast Wars I got a blue monkey and purple dino, and things were normal.

Hot Rod (not Rodimus) commanded my Autobots, though eventually Powermaster Optimus rose up to battle the new Decepticon leader: Sixshot.

I had very few Autobots growing up, so Rodimus always stepped up to the plate. Abominus and Devestator would always crush him though. Ah, good itmes indeed.

My first Prime was Powermaster Prime. Before that, my Autobots were led by a triumverate consisting of Ultra Magnus, Chainclaw, and Pincher.

My first Megatron was the Actionmaster, so I went without for a looong time. During that time, Submarauder reigned as Megatron's steward, awaiting his return.

Growing up it was Prime. No doubt. It still is, sort of. I do let him get blasted to pieces once in a while, like when I'm getting a new version. But since I got Classics, he's the leader. Classics rodimus is second with Classics Magnus leader of the rag tag band of autobots I don't have a team for.

I've got the Maximals led by Energon Beast War Prime (primal) and the Preds kinda follow Alt Shockwave. I've got the Seeker legion led by Classics Starscream. My wreckers are led by Universe Springer. MOvie 'bots now have ROTF Prime. Not sure how i like him, but it'll work. ROTF Megs is the movie 'cons leader. Animated Megs is leading what little anmated cons against the main Decepticon forces.

Man I sound messed up. I have more fun playing with them now than I did when I was little. lol

I've probably got tons more teams but they're all packed up for now. I'm trying to find a full time job and a place. Then they all come back and massive toy time!

Prime and a Combination of Astrotrain/Blitzwing

For the Autobots it was generally Prime, although Metroplex and Hot Spot also led and later on G2 Rapido took command.

For the 'cons it was more up in the air. Hun-Grrr, Hook, Ultra-Pretender Roadblock, Triggerhappy, and even Flywheels took the lead at various points, and probably some others did too.

How could I have forgotten this loser who tried to run the 'cons for a while. He was literally called a "Transposer"--need I say more?

http://www.collectiondx.com/review/abs/billbine
(mine did not have the Macross stickers someone added to this one).

Here's an auction of him in-box:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0233801887

Giant Purple Griffin wrote:and later on G2 Rapido took command.

Hehe, I always gave Rapido a personality much akin to Prowl from the late Marvel G1 comics. Much like Prowl, he was known to try and assume command in Prime's absence. Glad to see I'm not the only one who gave Rapido some authoritah.

Galvatron and Rodimus Prime, set in the Marvel UK future stories. I used to imagine Galvatron returned to the future at some point. This was before Time Wars was published. Optimus Prime did return but Rodimus remained leader.

Around the time Furman started his US run, I got the likes of Actionmaster Megatron, Shockwave and Thunderwing, already having had Scorponok so there was a lot of attempted tie ins with the comics and coups. Even had a little Lego Matrix which fitted in Diaclone Optimus chest that Thunderwing often tried to seize.

Because I had a lot more TF's, particularly a lot that featured in the US stuff, the future cast got kind of sidelined. I'm sorry but the likes of the Actionmasters, Triggercons and Firecons looked nice alongside the combiners, who I had most of.

I didn't have a Megatron. I can't remember who lead the Decepticons until Galvatron came along.

Mine is an interesting story. In my universe, anything that transformed was considered a Transformer and that included actual TF's, Gobots and various wannabe TF's. I probably had about a 50-50 collection when you counted "real" transformers and the others.

I got Optimus Prime in early 1985 and he obviously lead my Autobots. However, around the time of the movie one of his arms actually broke off so most of the time after that I used him as my "ghost" Optimus, that is until he came back in the cartoon. For some reason in my area it was extremely hard to find the main movie/season 3 toys in stores (and even in the rare cases when there were, I was too young to have money in constant supply) so I never owned a Rodimus Prime or even a Hot Rod or Ultra Magnus. I was lucky enough to get a Metroplex so he lead my Autobots at times, as did my Hotspot.

For the bad guys, I never owned a G1 Megatron but was lucky enough to have a Shockwave so he usually had the honors. I had read some of the Marvel comics as a kid so it made natural sense for him to lead. My cousin lived next door and had a Starscream so when we got together sometimes I let him lead, also. Right around the time the movie broke, I got a Cykill Gobot (the cool black repaint) and he took over because I had no Galvatron. About a year later, I bought a Soundwave off another kid at school and he was high in my ranks, also.

I used (and still use) masterpiece 'screamer for leadership of the Decepticons. Masterpiecce Prime leads the autobots.

I didn't have a lot of Transformers growing up. I had some toys and watched the cartoon all the time. I think I used Snarl as my Autobot leader. I used Snapdragon as my Decepticon leader.

Optimus Prime for the Autobots, and Thunderwing for the Decepticons.